Month: December 2009

We have been getting spring like weather lately, Saturday was warmer with 50s. With that I went into garden attempting to make my final harvest and clean up the garden.

let me start with cleanup project: My garden is a mess right now, with shorter days and juggling work, kids I rarely get time to go out in garden lately. Yesterday gave me fine opportunity to get start on cleanup work. I took down pea vines and supports, cleaned lettuce, bok choy bed. Bok choy were flowering and making broccoli-like flowering heads, I wish I could have clicked a photo. I made my observations around which plants survived hardest frosts, list includes – Brussels sprouts, broccoli, bok choy (to some extent), onion and garlic. I made a mental note to plant more of these for next year to extend harvest into fall/winter. This year is definitely experimental one…. Next cleanup was strawberry bed, whacking oregano perennials, cutting down old hellebore foliage. Lot got done in 15 minutes before my younger one was getting out of her late-afternoon nap.

harvests: I dug out last of the carrots and beets yesterday, I was skeptical if these survived after long spell of frost in December. Carrots were damp and extremely sweet. Few days of good frost sure brings out sweetness in vegetables. Onions have survived, these are bunching types. I re-planted them with more spacing. Brussels sprouts are bust, I think I planted them too late. all I’ll get from 3 plants is 4-5 heads. I hope I’ll do better next year.

Advertisements

Share this:

Like this:

I was on vacation in California for thanksgivings. It’s December and they still have blue skies, crisp air, pretty flowers, green hills, ripening tomatoes and fruiting trees. There’s a reason people want to live in California.

Sun soaked Marigolds

Lemon Tree, I am thinking Thai curry with lemon leaves

Persimmon Tree, there were 100+ fruits on this 8 feet tree.

Rosemary

I spotted fennel growing wildly on freeway side, this is on Concord, Vacaville side. a closer look and it is indeed Fennel. Fennel is weed in California 🙂

Like this:

Western Washington is experiencing record breaking cold this week, we are in 20s during the day and teens at night. Ground is frozen solid, I still have carrots, beets and Brussels sprouts, don’t know how these fare against this frost.

For records, my backyard had first killer frost on 2nd December this year.Frozen Pea vines Methi:

4 days of hard frost killed young methi leaves Below: Frozen Pond

Share this:

Like this:

Who am I?

Novice gardener, a wife and a mom trying to grow her own food. I garden in Washington, specifically Pacific Northwest - USDA zone 8b, sunset zone 4. All my life I have lived in a city with no space for gardening, now we are into a house with decent size yard. I am trying out growing vegetables, this is my story os success and failures.